Tech 101
by garbygal
Summary: Amanda makes another attempt on Sonya and Division discovers a new target that they need to protect and rescue from Amanda's clutches.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Pulling the door shut behind her, Sonya noticed how dark a night it was. There was no moon in the sky which just made things even darker. It did not help that it had only been about six months since Amanda had originally grabbed her, and every time she left the apartment, she felt like she had to look over her shoulder. Walking down the steps, she looked both ways into the darkness, satisfied when she did not see anything.

The night was silent other than the clicking of her heels on the cement. She was aware of everything, listening for any sound, any sign of a tail. She would not allow herself to be victimized again. Not when she had just barely gotten over the previous threat on her life and brought Birkhoff back into her life once it was gone. Looking around she still did not see anyone. As she walked further down the street, the hairs suddenly rose on her neck. Something was wrong. Casually, she glanced over her shoulder. On the first try she did not see anything. The second time she saw a figure, completely in black tailing her, ducking behind a tree.

Her heart began to pound. She couldn't let it happen again. She picked up her speed slightly and tapped a couple of buttons on her phone in her pocket. Glancing behind her, she noticed the man still tailing her. Judging by the black pants, black shirt, and black jacket, there was no question in her mind that he was another one of Amanda's lackeys. Trying to pick up her speed, Sonya was disappointed to see that the guy had kept up. She panicked in fear- what if she couldn't get away from him? What if Amanda captured her again? Would she kill her this time?

As she saw one of the main drags in front of her- a street full of traffic where the guy would have no dream of catching her- she excitedly sped up. The street seemed to be miles away as she rushed towards it. The guy behind her was getting closer- close enough she could hear his footsteps on the sidewalk. She picked up speed, but could hear his steps quicken to match hers. Her heart beat in her ears as she sped into a run. Her heels clicked at the same speed as her heart, but he was getting closer. There wasn't much time left before he would be on her. Tears of panic began to drip down her cheeks. She couldn't let it happen again. He was getting closer, her heels clicked faster, her heart pounded faster, his feet pounded in time with hers. Sonya was beginning to panic.

BAM!

Thinking she had been shot Sonya turned around. She was relieved to see a dark, expensive car had hit her stalker, knocking him to the ground. Momentarily she panicked, wondering who was driving the car, but much to her relief, Birkhoff rolled down the window of the car. "Get in!" he shouted, panicked, at Sonya.

Without hesitating she ran around the car and climbed in Birkhoff peeled away. "Where are we going?" Sonya asked him.

"Division." He replied.

Nikita was the last one to arrive into Ryan's office. Everyone else had already been at Division, but she had to arrive from her and Michael's apartment. She rushed in, her dark hair blowing behind her. She noticed Sonya in the corner, looking quite shaken, Birkhoff sitting beside her, looking concerned. "What happened?" she asked as she walked into the room.

"Amanda made a play for Sonya." Birkhoff replied in his typical concerned tone.

Nikita was confused. It didn't make sense. There was no logical reason Amanda needed Sonya's chip reactivate. "Why would she do that?"

"We think she was trying to reactivate Sonya's kill chip." Ryan reported.

Thinking about that for a second, Nikita still couldn't make sense of it. "Why? That doesn't make any sense." Nikita replied. "Why would Amanda want to do that?"

"Revenge?" Birkhoff replied, "Let's face it, Amanda's a bitch."

She still wasn't buying it. "Why would Amanda waste the time?"

"What? Do you think I am lying?" Birkhoff's anger boiled over.

"Calm down Birkhoff." Michael patted his shoulder. "So how did you get away? You can't tell me you fought them off."

Birkhoff glared at Michael. "I did, thank you." He replied, "With my car."

Alex, Ryan and Michael all cracked smiles at the thought. "So what are we doing here?" Nikita remained all business.

"We've been doing some research, since Amanda would have to have someone to reactivate the chip." Birkhoff explained.

"Why?" Nikita paced across the room. "I thought she had access to all of Ari's resources."

"We did too." Ryan replied, pulling up an image on the screen. "Until we found intel that she is looking for this man, Wexland Cooper."

"Who is Wexland Cooper?"

"Birkhoff before, well, Birkhoff." Michael replied.

A young dirty blond, hair pulled back into a ponytail, dress in black sweat clothes and a white t-shirt walked into Division's Operations headquarters. He was completely lost looking. Wexland Cooper, the head tech of Division, walked over to him in greeting. "So you must be Seymour." He greeted the scared young man.

"Birkhoff." He replied. "Everyone calls me Birkhoff."

Birkhoff looked around. He had been told that recruits were not normally allowed into Operations, but here he was. There were computers everywhere with techs working on them. "So I understand you are something special." Wexland told him. "Quite the hacker. So, they've given you to me. Instead of the standard training, I am going to train you to be Division's tech expert, so you can take over for me."

"Why would I go along with this?" the young man sneered back.

"We could just put you back in prison." Wexland reminded him. "The Chinese are just waiting for a crack at you."

Birkhoff rolled his eyes. "So? I'll survive, I always do."

"What is your problem kid? We are giving you another chance. Hasn't anyone ever told you that looking a gift horse in the mouth is a bad idea?" Wexland shook his head in disbelief.

"My problem is that no one has given a damn about me! Now I'm supposed to believe you're all going to give me a shiny new title and a shiny new life and I won't have to do anything else." Birkhoff exploded.

"Exactly." Wexland replied. "This is about second chances."

"So, where is he? We need to go get him before Amanda does." Nikita insisted.

"It's not that easy." Michael replied. "When Wexland got the order of recall when Percy was killed, he took the chance to run. We haven't been able to find him since then either."

"Well, we had better find him before Amanda does." Nikita replied, stating the obvious.

"It won't be easy." Birkhoff replied, "But I've already got everyone trying to locate him."

Later that afternoon, Birkhoff sat in Operations, watching as the techs worked on trying to find Wexland Cooper. He glanced over at Sonya who was working, but obviously upset. He walked over to her station, placing his hand on her shoulder. She jumped, turning to see Birkhoff, and then relaxed. "Seymour," She commented, "You startled me."

"Sorry." Birkhoff replied. "How are you doing?"

"Okay, for now." Sonya replied. "But I know in Division I am safe."

"Don't worry." Birkhoff tried to comfort her. "We'll get everything taken care of. We'll make sure you're safe."

Sonya went back to working on her computer. Suddenly Birkhoff spotted something on her screen. "What's that?" he pointed to it on her screen.

Pulling up the file a picture of a young woman appeared. She had to be young- her early twenties. Birkhoff had an idea. "Do you have the picture of Cooper handy?" he asked her.

Punching a few buttons, Sonya pulled the picture net to the young woman's. The relationship was immediately obvious. Birkhoff and Sonya looked at each other in disbelief. "We'd better get Michael and Ryan."

Ryan had his office windows open, so Birkhoff just stood up and waived for Ryan and Michael to come over. They came over and looked at Sonya's computer. I didn't know he had a daughter." Ryan immediately replied.

"Neither did I." Michael replied. "He must have wanted to keep her hidden. What is her name?"

Sonya punched a few more buttons Jaymee. Jaymee Jasper, her mother's name." Sonya replied. "There are signs that Amanda has been researching her."

"Why would Amanda want her?" Ryan asked.

"Bait." Michael replied. "She would use her for bait. Where is she?"

Sonya did a little more searching. "It looks like she's a student at the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay."

Birkhoff snorted. "I guess he was really trying to hide her."

"Her mother is from Wisconsin." Sonya replied.

"Well, we had better get Nikita and Owen in. They're going to have to go and get her." Michael replied.


	2. Chapter 2

Jaymee Jasper pulled her jacket tight around her as she left MAC Hall. It was the end of her classes for the day, so now it was time for her to hike across the campus, on yet another freezing day. It was about -7 degrees, but with the cold wind blowing off the bay nearby, it felt like it was about 30 below. As she walked out into the cold, Jaymee knew she was ready for spring. She hiked as quickly as her 5'5" frame would take her and people passing by would only see her eyes peeking out from between her hat and scarf.

As she walked Jaymee adjusted a tight strap on her backpack. He boots crunched the fresh snow as she quickly walked toward her apartment. Of course her apartment was the furthest from the class buildings which made the walk doubly-bad on a cold day like this. She pasted the parking lot and walked between the buildings. When she got to the apartment building, she swiped her ID card, unlocking the door. She walked down the hallway towards her room at the other end; the halls were pretty empty as most people had gone home for winter vacation. Finally she got to her room and slid her ID into the door lock to open the room door.

Words could not describe the horror as Jaymee walked into her room. In the living room, directly across the room from the door where she had come in, Allison, her roommate, was tied to a chair, gagged, with a man dressed in all black holding a gun to her head. Allie, as she preferred to be called, looked like a doll compared to the huge man next to her. Allie was 4'9", 100 pounds, and she looked tiny next to the man 6'3", 200 lbs., totally ripped.

By the time she had processed all that information, the door had slammed behind her and someone had clamped a hand over Jaymee's mouth. She could tell by the well-manicured nails that the person behind her was a woman, and that surprised her. The woman pushed her towards the couch where Jaymee sat down, almost letting out a screamed before she saw the Glock pointed at her by the woman. "Don't even try it." She snarled. "So you must be Jaymee. I've waited a long time to meet you."

"Do I know you?" Jaymee questioned.

Fluffing her short, dark-brown with a reddish tint hair, the woman smiled. "No, but you will. I worked with your father. About 13 years ago."

At the mention of her father, Jaymee tensed up. She did not actually remember her father. When she was two- too young to remember him- her mother had left her father. There was never an explanation, no pictures, nothing other than a first name, Wexland, which Jaymee had found a few months ago when looking for her father. "I don't really have a father." Jaymee replied through clenched teeth.

"Oh, but you do." The woman paced in front of Jaymee, a cocky smile on her face. "You see, I know you were looking for him. That's actually what led me to you."

Jaymee was suddenly even more concerned. Not only was she being held at gunpoint, along with her roommate, but the woman knew about her, more than she even knew about herself, and that was even scarier. "What are you talking about?"

The woman shook her head. "C'mon Jaymee. Let's not play this game."

"I don't know what you are talking about." Jaymee plead. "I don't know who you are; I don't know my dad's name, nothing."

"Oh, but don't you see, I already know that." Jaymee suddenly found herself distracted by the click of the woman's heels on her floor. "But I am being rude. I know your name, but you don't know ours. I'm Amanda. This is Paul." She gestured to the man holding the gun to Allie's head. "We worked for a company with your father. We'd like to work with him again, but we can't seem to find him."

Jaymee couldn't believe her ears. She had always wondered what it was that was so dangerous that her mother had broken up their family, especially when she spoke so highly of her ex-husband, but Jaymee could never get any answers. It was like he didn't exist. She had a feeling he had some very deep, dark secrets, and this only confirmed her suspicions. If she could only find out what was going on. This was exactly how the horror movies started- his activities had led them to his family who knew nothing about what he'd been up to- and they were always the ones to get hurt. "I would love to help you." Jaymee told them, "But I don't even remember him, I would have no idea where to find him."

Amanda just smirked. "That doesn't matter. We didn't expect you to. But, I do know that if we have you, he will come to us."

Jaymee tried to process what they were suggesting. Her mind panicked over the options- the possibility that they could kidnap her and use her as a lure. "What are you planning?" she asked.

"Now, now, we've already talked too much." Amanda told her. "First, we can't leave any witnesses."

With a nod to Paul, he held the gun closer to Allie's head and pulled back the safety. Jaymee gasped as the tears started to fall down Allie's face. "Please." Jaymee whispered, pleading for her roommate's life.

Instinctively she closed her eyes as the gun fired, the silencer muffling the sound. After a few seconds, Jaymee opened her eyes. Slowly her eyes traced the floor to where Allie was, slumped over in her chair and blood splattered across the wall. It took all she had not to throw up at the gruesome sight- or the knowledge of what could be coming next for her. The seconds seemed to slowly pass as Jaymee swallowed the bile rising in her throat. As Amanda walked closer to her and Jaymee felt her heart trying to beat out of her chest. "Night, night." Amanda suddenly announced, raising her arm and driving the butt of the gun into Jaymee's temple, driving her into the darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

Nikita and Owen parked their SUV outside of the apartment building. "Where the hell are we?" Owen looked around at the empty fields surrounding the apartment building on the far side of the campus.

Rolling her eyes, Nikita walked towards the lobby for the campus apartment building. It had been a drive from the airport to get there and the campus was on the very edge of town boarding farm fields as far as the eyes could see. "Shut up Owen. We're here on business."

Making sure no one was around, Nikita used the card deice Birkhoff had crafted for them to get into the building. Sliding it into the card reader, she held it there until it created a correct ID for them to unlock the door. The door popped open and they casually walked into the building. Nikita was surprised at how few people were around- the apartment building halls were completely empty and quiet. "Does anyone actually go to school here?" Owen asked.

"I guess everyone went home for winter break." Nikita watched the room numbers as they walked down the hall. "Birkhoff," she keyed her earpiece. "What number room are we looking for?"

"Ah," Birkhoff double check the notes as his voice greeted them over their ear pieces. "117. Should be at the far end of the hall from where you are now."

"Here." Owen pointed to a door as they got there.

Nikita swiped the device again to get into the room. The room wasn't very big- a tiny living room with cheap furniture, a small kitchen that was part of the same room and a small hallway that lead to the bathroom and bedrooms. The apartment was silent, there didn't appear to be anywhere there. As Nikita looked around for any sign of the girl being in the room, Owen disappeared down the small hallway to look in the bedrooms and bathroom. "She's not here." Nikita reported back to everyone waiting in operations. "Birkhoff, can you figure out where she is?"

"She's not there?" Birkhoff sounded surprised. "She's supposed to be there. I've checked their scans for the last two months and she is just about always there at this time. Her roommate too."

"Nikita!" Owen called her from the other room.

Walking down the hall, Nikita saw the light in the bathroom on and went in to find Owen kneeling next to the tub. When she got closer, she realized that Owen was closely studying the bottom of the tub. "What is it?" she asked him.

"Acid." Owen showed her the wetness on the bottom of the tub, eating through the toweling he had used to wipe it up.

"We have a problem." Nikita reported back to Operations.

"What kind of problem?" Michael asked.

"Acid in the tub." Nikita walked back in the living room looking for any signs of a struggle. "Birkhoff, are there any cameras here?"

"Only on the outside of the building. I'll have Sonya check the videos." Birkhoff replied, as Sonya nodded in confirmation that she heard him, heading over to her station to begin her search. "I checked through the ID card swipes, and both her and her roommate had swiped in the last hour."

Back at Division, Sonya was quickly reviewing the video feeds from the front of the apartment building. Suddenly, her eye caught something. "I got it." Sonya shouted, "Amanda and an accomplice left with a huge trunk about a half hour ago."

Birkhoff and Michael rushed over to the monitor and looked at the image on the screen. Sure enough Amanda had not done anything to hide that she was abducting the young woman. "The tub must have been the roommate." Nikita guessed with disappointment in her voice.

"Alright." Michael finally decided. "Get back here. We'll have to find out where Amanda has taken her and regroup.

"What if she doesn't move her very far? Amanda is awfully desperate right now and she's acting in an awful hurry. She may try to get the father to Green Bay since he may know his daughter is here rather than move her and make him try to find them." Nikita suggested, wanting to make sure they were accounting for everything that could happen.

"She's got a point." Ryan finally made a statement after having stood back to watch for the first part of the mission. "Nikita and Owen, hold in Green Bay. We'll get back to you when we find something out."

"Great." Owen rolled his eyes. "We get to stay in the middle of nowhere."

Nikita rolled her eyes again, walking back towards the SUV. Her resolve to rescue Jaymee had only grown greater now that an innocent victim- her roommate, got caught in the middle. This job got harder and harder the further that they went. She wanted to end this game with Amanda once and for all before more innocent people got hurt.

Meanwhile Birkhoff and Sonya worked desperately to find Amanda and the young girl. They used the video of Amanda leaving the campus and ran searches for the vehicle. They worked checking traffic cameras, although Green Bay didn't have a lot of them, and check the business parking lots to try to find Amanda. Birkhoff was chugging another energy drink as he worked at his computer as quickly as possible. "I got it!" Sonya shouted!

Birkhoff, Michael and Ryan ran quickly over to Sonya's station. "I just did a 40 mile radius search from the campus for vehicles matching that description. Heat signature shows three people in the car." Sonya reported.

"Excellent work." Michael told her.

Birkhoff had to fight the urge to kiss her right in front of everyone. It was exciting to see her work her magic with the computer. "Great job." He whispered in her ear.

Sonya smiled as Ryan asked, "So where are we?"

"Oh, I thought Green Bay was the middle of nowhere." Owen complained, stepping out of their SUV.

They had driven about half-an-hour outside of Green Bay to a small town called Luxembourg. The whole drive had been farm fields and so far that was all the small town had been to. "So where are they?" Nikita asked Birkhoff through her earpiece.

"A warehouse about a block east of you." Birkhoff replied to her.

"How many guards are there?" Owen asked, still in disbelief over the tiny town they were in.

"Only four, two on both sides- North and South." Birkhoff reported back.

"Well that's good. They won't see us approaching." Nikita  
commented.

Owen took his gun out of the back of the SUV and racked it. Nikita grabbed her and they headed towards the warehouse to rescue the young girl.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Amanda starred at the girl tied to the chair still unconscious in front of her. She was surprised how well this had gone. With all the bad luck she had been having, losing Anne and all, for something to go this well was truly a surprise. Sure she still had to assume Nikita would try to rescue the girl, but they would have to find her first. As the girl started to stir, Amanda got ready for the next part of the plan. As the girls eyes opened and she looked around, Jaymee groaned and replied, "Great. I was hoping to this was all a dream."

"You know better than that." Amanda replied. "I want your father."

"I still think you are nuts. I haven't talked with him in years. Jaymee was suddenly cocky. You don't even know if he will want to come after me."

"You're his little girl. He will come after you." Amanda answered with a smirk.

"What are you going to do?" Jaymee asked.

"Well," Amanda passed in front of Jaymee, "We are going to shoot a video. Pretty much we are going to tell your dad to come and rescue you, or I kill you."

"Why don't you just ask my father to come work with you?" Jaymee had a feeling that she didn't want to know about a lot of what was going on.

"He's in hiding. We can't find him. We need you to help us locate him." Amanda replied.

"If I refuse?" Jaymee was going to be combative as long as she could.

"If you refuse I'll just kill you like we killed your roommate, and I'll have to find some other way to find your father." Amanda smirked.

"In other words, I really have no option or I die." Jaymee replied.

"That's a way to look at it." Amanda replied.

"Fine. What do I need to do?"

It wasn't too difficult for Nikita and Own to find the warehouse where Amanda's guards were waiting out front on either side of the building. Nikita couldn't figure out why Amanda did not have more security- it almost seemed like they wanted Division to try to break the girl out- or they thought it would take a lot longer to find them. Either way, it didn't really matter, they just had to rescue the girl. Owen worked on getting his long range rifle set up to take the guards out. They had decided that with so few guards they wouldn't notice the couple they had to take down before they would get down into warehouse. "Ready?" Owen asked Nikita, who nodded in reply.

With two quick shots, Owen knocked both of the guards on the North side of the building. They both armed themselves with their smaller guns, then headed down towards the warehouse. As they got closer, they carefully watched to make sure their entrance was unseen. It did not appear that anyone was watching beside the two guards that they had already taken out. "How are we going in?" Owen asked as they stood at the tree line across from the warehouse.

"I say we just go in I don't think Amanda can have that many on her side." Nikita replied.

"Okay." Owen agreed.

They walked down towards the side door of the warehouse. Owen opened the door as Nikita kept her gun trained on it, just in case Amanda had more help than they anticipated. She was surprised when there was no one there to meet them. This seemed almost too easy. "Now where are we going?" Nikita keyed her earpiece to talk to Birkhoff.

"According to the blueprints, they are probably in the large room to your left. Take the first hallway." Birkhoff replied.

Owen and Nikita headed down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, there were three doors. "Which doorway Birkhoff?" Nikita immediately asked.

"Your left again." Birkhoff replied.

Owen and Nikita looked at each other in confirmation. Guns drawn, Owen took one last breath, then kicked in the door. Immediately someone started shooting at them; Nikita and Owen dived for cover behind some metal boxes. Carefully poking her head over the boxes to take a peek, Nikita quickly scanned the room. She saw Amanda and the girl to tied to a chair at the far end of the room. Between her and them were about ten men providing fire support for her. She dived back behind the box. "There are about ten of them." She reported to Owen.

Owen nodded and fired over the box. As he dived back down, Nikita switched and shot over the box. A few seconds passed and Nikita peeked over. Rushing back behind their cover, Nikita replied, "Six left."

Popping back over the box, Owen fired a few more shots. They alternated back and forth until there was finally no shots returned. Carefully Owen poked up over the box. Amanda was gone, all her men were down,, but the girl still sat tied to the chair. "We're clear." Owen told Nikita.

They got up, carefully running towards the girl, watching for anyone who maybe hiding to take them out. When they got to the girl, Owen quickly noticed a blood trail leading away. "I think we hit Amanda." He pointed out.

Nikita seemed distracted. She didn't seem to hear Owen and she rushed to Jaymee's side. Untying her hands, Nikita told Jaymee, "Don't worry Jaymee, we're here to rescue you."

"Thank you." Jaymee whispered as they ungagged her.

Jaymee fell forward slightly but Owen quickly leaned forward to catch her. "Whoa!" he shouted in surprise, "Let me help."

"We got to go." Nikita was still frantically looking around. "We don't know who else may be around."

Owen nodded and looked at Jaymee, who nodded in understanding as Owen picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder. They quickly rushed out of the warehouse and towards their car. The guards from the front of the building gave chase as Owen and Nikita fired shots over their shoulders to keep them off their tails. It wasn't too long before they reached the SUV. Owen threw Jaymee carefully into the back, then he and Nikita jumped in, firing at the guards as they got the car started and sped away. "We got her." Nikita reported to Operations, peeking over the seat at Jaymee.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Slowly opening her eyes, Jaymee came to in a small, dark room. Blinking her eyes to clear her cloudy vision, she slowly looked around the empty room, dark grey paint covering the walls making it even darker feeling. Everything was slowly coming back to her- the apartment, her roommate Allie, the scary woman who kidnapped and threatened her, the woman getting shot and her getting rescued. After they had gotten Jaymee into the SUV safely, they gave her an injection to put her to sleep. She was glad for the nap a chance to relax and take in what had happened. She hadn't gotten much rest or relaxation since this had started.

Hearing the click of the door, Jaymee turned to see a shorter, long-haired man come into the room. She was disappointed she did not recognize he guy who had come in. After everything she had been through, a little consistency was all she was hoping for. "Good morning." He casually greeted her.

"Who are you?" Jaymee asked, pulling her blanket up to her neck.

"Relax." He gave her a subtle smile. "My name is Seymour Birkhoff- most people call me Birkhoff. I work with the people who rescued you yesterday."

The name sounded familiar. She vaguely remembered one of the people who rescued her talking to a Birkhoff through a headset. "Where am I?" she asked.

"You're in our, um," Birkhoff struggled to think of a way to describe Division, "Our agency Division. We are going to protect you until we find out where your dad is and make sure he's safe too."

Jaymee cringed at the mention of her father. For not seeing him most of her life, he was certainly causing her a lot of trouble. She thought for a second, and then asked, "Why does that woman want my father so badly?"

Sitting down on a chair next to the bed, Birkhoff shrugged and replied, "We don't know for sure, but part of it is that she has something that is encrypted that only your father or I could decrypt. She knows that there's little chance of her getting me while I am with Division, so she decided to target your father."

"I don't even know him." Jaymee finally said her peace, not sure if the man would even care. "I doubt my father would even come after me." She swung her legs out from under the covers. She took a minute to realize that someone had changed her from the dirty clothes Amanda had her in into a fresh white tank top and dark sweatpants. She hopped it hadn't been him.

"I don't know him as long as Amanda did." Birkhoff finally used her name. "If she is trying to use you as bait, she knows your father will come for you. Don't underestimate the power of this organization your mom leaving your dad may not have been his choice, it may have been the only way to keep the two of you safe."

"Well, I'm not going to ever know unless I talk to him." Jaymee figured this Birkhoff must know what he was talking about, but she wouldn't believe what anyone had to say about it until she heard the facts from the man who had made the decision himself.

"Where is your mom?" Birkhoff suddenly asked, "We need to make sure that she's safe too."

Looking at the floor of the room, then Birkhoff, Jaymee finally replied, "That won't be a problem. She died three years ago."

Jaymee could tell Birkhoff was kicking himself for not doing more research before asking the question, but she knew he was just trying to help her. "I'm sorry." He quietly replied.

"It's okay, really." Jaymee tried to put on a smile to make him feel better.

"Do you feel up to going to talk with some of us about your research and what you found out about your father's location?"

Jaymee gave a subtle nod. "That would be fine, but I'm afraid I didn't learn very much about it."

She felt more relieved when Birkhoff didn't look too surprised. "That's alright. Any little bit will help."

Jaymee went to stand up to go, but she realized she didn't have shoes on. "Um, do you know where my shoes are?" she asked Birkhoff.

Scratching his head, Birkhoff looked around the room, scanning for the missing shoes. He suddenly walked over to a closet and pulled a pair of sneakers out, putting them on the bed next to Jaymee. Jaymee quickly slipped the shoes on and looked up at Birkhoff to lead her to where ever it was they were going. "Follow me." He replied when she signaled she was ready.

As Birkhoff led her through the hallway, Jaymee wasn't very impressed by the place. The hallways were empty, the metal decorations giving them the feel of a machine. As he led her on there was a large room with gym equipment and a few young people around taking the opportunity to work out. They walked on to an elevator, which took them to another floor. When the elevator stopped, it opened to another large room like the gym, but this one was filled with computers and people working. Rushing her through the room, Birkhoff finally stopped at a door, knocking quickly on it.

A man answered the door, very official looking in his suit. Again Jaymee found she was disappointed it wasn't someone she recognized. "Ryan," she heard Birkhoff start to introduce, "This is Jaymee. Jaymee, this is our head guy, Ryan."

"Nice to meet you." Ryan stuck out his hand and Jaymee softly shook t. "Come in."

As they walked in to what Jaymee assumed was Ryan's office she finally spotted the two people who had rescued her- along with another hot-looking buff guy with buzzed dark hair and a young girl a little younger than Jaymee, wavy brunette hair brushed behind her ears. "Jaymee," Birkhoff continued the introductions, "This is Nikita, Owen, who you've met before, Michael and Alex."

Jaymee gave a shy half-wave. She was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by the number of people around after what she'd just been through. "Nice to meet you all." She managed.

"So did Birkhoff tell you what we are trying to do" Ryan asked her as he took a seat at the huge desk in the back of the office.

Nodding, Jaymee replied, "I wish I had more to contribute, but I did not have much luck. I am an only child; both my parents were only children. All my grandparents are dead. There's not really anyone to ask about my father left, except him, if I could find him." She admitted.

"Were you able to find anything out?" the guy she thought had been introduced as Michael asked.

Shaking her head no, Jaymee replied, "It was like when my mom left him, and went back to Green Bay, he disappeared. There seems to be no use of his name after we left when I was two."

The group thought on this for a minute before Michael asked, "Jaymee, what year was that?"

Jaymee wasn't sure why it would matter, but she replied, "1987."

"That doesn't make any sense." Nikita immediately replied. "There was no Division until 1998."

"Birkhoff, can you pull up his file?" Michael asked.

Jaymee just watched as Birkhoff walked over to the computer and started to work, his fingers flying over the keys. After just a minute of searching he started to read, "Wexland Cooper. Came to Division in 1999. It says Wexland was a private consultant working for another organization that was called Empire in these notes. He was drafted into Empire when he was acquitted of attempting to hack into the FBI and CIA for terrorists. They were sure they would convict him, but some hot-shot lawyer, Harry Clark, got him off. Clark was a part of Empire."

Jaymee was shocked. She remembered her mom, on her deathbed, just repeating "Damn Empire," but the nurses and Jaymee having no idea what it meant. Before she could remember anymore, Nikita's voice pulled her back to the present asking, "Do we have anything on this Empire?"

Birkhoff did a quick search and everyone was very aware when his jaw dropped in shock. "Birkhoff, what is it?" Michael asked.

"Amanda's file had a secret group. I never noticed it before because it's very well hidden, and I've never dug that far into it, but it popped up when I did a top-clearance search for Empire." Birkhoff quickly spouted out in shock.

"What does that mean?" Michael was impatient to get the information.

"Amanda was the head of Empire before she came to Division- that's why Percy picked her for the job." Birkhoff reported.

Jaymee knew that didn't sound very good even before everyone's eyes grew large. "Amanda has some secret files in here that came up too, also well hidden." Birkhoff continued to tap computer keys to get more information, "It was another secret agency. It was run by the government. That's all it says here. I'll get Sonya to look for more information." Birkhoff left the room quickly.

"Another secret governmental agency, just what we needed." Nikita sarcastically replied.

"What does this mean?" Jaymee had found herself lost in their surprise.

"If we can find out more about this organization, we may be able to find out where your father and Amanda met which may give us more information about him." Michael explained to her.

"Don't you know when he left here?" Jaymee asked.

"On it!" Birkhoff announced without a beat as he had walked back into the room. Once again as he typed on the keyboard he reported, "He came in 2000. I was his replacement, he briefly trained me. I don't know what happened- why he was leaving. I think I was told at the time he was taking another post, but then Amanda would have been able to find him."

"Birkhoff, you get researching how he left Division alive and where he went." Michael suggested, then turned to Nikita and said, "You may not actually be the first person to escape alive."

"I'll be glad if that's true." Nikita replied.

Jaymee sat quietly as they continued to talk, stopping occasionally to rub her temples as a pounding headache began to form. As the room moved at a lightening pace to try to figure out their plan of action, Jaymee began to feel nauseous. "Can I go lay down?" she finally asked.

"Alex," Michael looked over at the young girl who had been quietly but intently listening to the conversation in the corner, "Can you take her back to her room?"

Alex nodded and started out the door with Jaymee. As they left Jaymee heard Ryan direct the others, "We have to find out what this is and how her father was involved. I am getting the feeling that Empire is the key to finding Wexland Cooper."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It had been a couple of days since Division had discovered the existence of Empire, but so far Jaymee hadn't heard anything about them finding out more information. Day and night everyone was was researching and trying to crack the organization's secrets, but so far nothing had been found. Jaymee had spent most of her time in her room recovering from the shock of everything going on. She felt stuck in a whirlwind- should she be mad at her father or was it really not his choice What was he involved in Where was he There were so many questions but so few answers.

So today when Jaymee woke, she decided she would start to help. He just sitting there wasn't helping anything and even if it led to her finding out things he didn't want to, she would find those things out eventually anyway. Quickly changing into the standard Division garb she had been given, Jaymee walked towards Operations. Luckily in the last couple of days she had gotten the locations down, so she knew where she was heading to. When she got there, she saw everyone frantically working. Not one person was sitting around; everyone was working hard trying to uncover anything about what Empire was and how it might lead to Jaymee's father. Noting Birkhoff working towards the back of the room, Jaymee walked over to him. "Hi Birkhoff, anything I can do to help?" she asked.

Birkhoff glanced up from his work, clearly surprised to see Jaymee there. "Hey Jaymee," he quickly greeted her. "Do you have any experience with searching on computers? Hacking?"

Jaymee shook her head no. As good as her father apparently was with hacking, it wasn't something Jaymee had ever tried or thought about. "Computers, yes. Hacking, no." she replied.

Grabbing some binders off of the desktop counter beside him, Birkhoff moved them to the side then patted the station next to him. "Work here. We are looking through files about Empire. If you see anything, or if you need help, just let me know." Birkhoff instructed her.

Jaymee sat down and started looking through the information Birkhoff had pulled up on the computer. The sheer number of documents on her screen was overwhelming. There were just so many things to search through just to get little bits of information about Jaymee's dad or on Empire. Deep down Jaymee was still scared she did not want to know all her fathers' secrets because obviously there were some substantial ones that could change Jaymee's life forever- more than it already had.

Slowly she started to dig through all the information Birkhoff had pulled up for her. Most of the information was meaningless to her. There were reports about different missions, things she didn't understand. There was nothing about Empire. After several hours of searching, Birkhoff searching beside her, neither of them had found any leads. Since they had been sitting there, Jaymee was amazed that Birkhoff had gone through six cans of energy drinks. Smirking as she turned back to her screen, Jaymee suddenly spotted something, a group of folders that had been hiding well away from the main ones. She clicked into it and pulled open some of the documents. As her eyes scanned, the sight of a mention of Empire made her eyes go big. "Birkhoff!" she practically shouted to get his attention.

Birkhoff turned to Jaymee and looked at the screen where she was pointing. Quickly he scanned the pages, a smile slowly crossing his face. "Michael! Ryan!" Birkhoff called the main guys over, the turned back to Jaymee and asked, "Where did you find this"

Jaymee took Birkhoff back through the folders to show him where it had been hidden. As she finished showing him, Ryan and Michael had come up to join them. "What did you find?" Michael asked.

"I didn't find it." Birkhoff replied, "Jaymee did."

"We'll keep looking but why don't you and Jaymee head somewhere quite- your office maybe, and work through these documents, see what you can find out." Ryan suggested.

Birkhoff punched a few buttons; Jaymee assumed that he was sending the documents to the computers in his office. "Come on Jaymee." Birkhoff finally said, leading her out of Operations towards his office.

They walked quickly through the hallways, Jaymee could barely keep track of where they were going as they kept making turns and reversed direction. Finally, in what must have been the very back part of Division, well hidden from everything else, Birkhoff unlocked a door and Jaymee followed him into the room. Her first thought was a bat cave. It was very dark and cold- probably because of all the computer equipment. Besides all of the computer equipment, Jaymee saw a huge TV and couch, plus a huge, unmade bed in the corner. The room screamed bachelor. There weren't any empty food containers or anything like that, but there were unfolded clothes and towels everywhere- it was hard to tell if they were clean or dirty. Comic books and action figures were hap-hazard strewn across the room. Birkhoff cleaned off a computer chair that had been covered in a mountain of paperwork and gestured for Jaymee to sit down. He tapped a few keys and on the computer monitor he pulled up the documents that she had found before. Placing a notepad on the desk before her, he said, "Let me know if you need anything."

"Sure." She replied, starting to read the documents as Birkhoff began to work at another computer beside her.

It was an hour of endless searching before Jaymee came across the first real document that gave her an idea of what Empire had been:

June 4, 1954 The Empire Act

This act hereby designated the creation of the Empire  
program. The Empire program is designed to use

selected convicts and give them the opportunity to serve their  
country. They are rehabilitated and place back into their facility  
to serve the purposes of the government, getting rid of  
threats that are in their facility. If they meet the requirements of their  
rehabilitation, they are slated for early release into the second part  
of the program, spying on the American public to make  
sure that there are no threatening individuals and to  
react to any threats perceived by the program from  
the American people.

"Birkhoff, I think I have something!" Jaymee announced.

Birkhoff rolled his computer chair over to where Jaymee was working. He glanced at the screen and immediately pulled out his cell phone. "Hey Mikey, you want to come down here, we've got some very basic Empire information for you." He waited for a reply and then turned to Jaymee and replied, "Good work Jaymee. Michael is going to be right down here to take a look at this."

Birkhoff went over to his station and continued working while they waited for Michael. "Have you found anything" Jaymee asked him, standing behind his computer chair.

"Nothing much." He replied. "Little pieces here and there mentioning them. Nothing like what you found- that's exactly what we needed. Great job."

Jaymee blushed. "Thanks." She replied.

"What do you have?" Jaymee giggled at the thought that this was the only line Michael could say, as he rushed into the room.

"Jaymee found some very interesting information about the beginning of Empire." Birkhoff lead Michael over to the computer where she had been working.

Michael carefully reviewed the information, then turned to Jaymee. "Gold star. This kind of information is exactly what we are looking for. It gives us a good idea what Empire is, how it started, and how your father got involved. A good guess right now would be that your father was in prison for the hacking charges, Empire contacted him because of his hacker skills- just like we did for Birkhoff. They enrolled him into Empire the same way."

"Sound reasonable." Birkhoff nodded in agreement.

"May explain why mom left if he was involved in that." Jaymee guessed.

"He may have instinctually known it would be trouble and sent you away, yes." Michael agreed. "It would definitely explain things. Now we just need to find out where Empire was based, what your father's history was and how he got from Empire to Division."

"Back to work." Birkhoff rolled his eyes at Jaymee.

"Back to work." Jaymee giggled.

Everyone worked non-stop reviewing information. Unfortunately Jaymee's discovery was the only worthwhile information that they found. Everything else was just filler to hide that information in so no one would find it. Around 3:00 AM Jaymee was starting to barely be able to keep her eyes open. She was reading a lot slower now, about a paragraph before her head would start to droop in front of the computer screen.

The next time that Birkhoff looked over at Jaymee, she was completely asleep. Her head hung down over the keyboards, the hair hung down in front of her face. He gave her a few minutes and looked over again, but she was still fast asleep. He stood up and walked over to her. The temptation was there to wake her up and tease her about not pulling her weight, but after everything that she had been through, it was probably much better to let her sleep. Carefully lifting her from the chair, Birkhoff carried her over to his bed. He gently placed her down on it, then pulled his blankets carefully over her, straightening them up from the pile he'd left them in.

Continuing to work, Birkhoff found a few more little bits and pieces, but nothing major. Somehow in his haze of energy drinks, Birkhoff still managed to fall asleep in front of his computer. It was around 10:00 AM the next morning when he woke with a startle as a familiar, husky voice asked, "So what do we have here?"

With a groan Birkhoff opened his eyes to see that Michael had come to check on their progress. Birkhoff could never figure out how Michael's clothes looked freshly pressed even though he had just pulled an all-nighter. Personally he looked a mess. His hair was all over, pointing out in every direction. His clothes were wrinkled from him sleeping in them all night. When he had finally fully woken, Birkhoff realized that Michael was not looking at him, but at Jaymee, still fast asleep in Birkhoff's bed. "Ah c'mon man!" Birkhoff complained, "You know I have Sonya. It's not like that."  
"Geez Birkhoff. Don't get so excited." Michael laughed. "Just like to see you squirm."

"Thanks." Birkhoff huffed in reply.

"Did you guys come across anything else?" Michael went back to business.

Birkhoff shook his head in reply. "Nothing more than what we had before." He answered.

"This is just dead end after dead end. We have got to figure something out, and fast." Michael commented, walking away.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Wake up Sunshine," a voice suddenly drilled into Jaymee's sleepy subconscious. Before she had a chance to process the voice she heard "Wakey, wakey."

As Jaymee slowly woke, she realized she was lying in a bed and couldn't remember how she had gotten there. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see Birkhoff standing beside the bed. "Birkhoff?" she groggily questioned his appearance.

"Hey Jaymee. You fell asleep while we were searching last night, remember? I put you in the bed so you would be more comfortable. Did you sleep okay?"  
With a stretch Jaymee nodded reply. "Thanks." She replied, surprised by his actions, climbing out of the bed.

"I'll be right back. I'm just going to brush my teeth." Birkhoff walked across the room to his bathroom.

Jaymee ran a hand through her hair to try to straighten the mess out. As she tried to get her hair in place, she thought about Birkhoff and what he had done. It was sweet, something that she hadn't expected from him.

It wasn't that Birkhoff was mean- he was a really nice guy when Jaymee had spent time with him. The chivalry was strange- something she hadn't seen from him before. Even with Sonya, the girlfriend that Jaymee had heard about. She shook it off and straightened her clothes as Birkhoff came back in the room. "We got some information while you were sleeping." Birkhoff told her. "We have a meeting in Ryan's office to decide what to do in twenty minutes. You may want to head back to your room and get ready."

"Okay." Jaymee smiled in reply. "Thanks Birkhoff. For everything."

"No sweat." He smiled, "See you in a bit."

"We've got to come up with a plan." Nikita pointed out as everyone sat in Ryan's office a week later.

Ryan, Alex, Nikita, Michael, Birkhoff and Jaymee were all together. They had allowed a week to pass while they gathered the information they needed. It wasn't something they wanted to do, but they had to get the information before making any moves. Now that they had found what they needed they would need a plan. "Well," Michael rubbed her forehead, "with another secret agency we are going to have to be extra careful."

"Let's run through everything we have to make sure we are on the same page." Ryan suggested. "Birkhoff?"

Birkhoff stood and brought a few documents up on the monitors for everyone to see. "From what we have discovered, the Empire program originated in the 1950s by the un-American committee. Empire's goal was to rehabilitate selected prisoners to take out selected targets within their facilities. If they succeeded in that, they would be placed back in society to monitor every day society members to report and end any threats." He paused, and then continued, "Apparently big brother is always watching."

Brief laughter added lightness to the conversation for a few seconds. "As for Jaymee's father, it appears that Empire targeted him in 1987. He was arrested on a trumped up charge of hacking and their lawyers got him off for a price. He worked for them until Amanda, who was the head of Empire by this time, moved over to Division and took Jaymee's father with her." Birkhoff continued.

"We have not been able to figure out where Empire was based." Michael replied, "All signs point to somewhere around Washington DC so they could remain in close contact with the military that had created them."

"But we have no definitive proof." Birkhoff took over.

"Wait." Jaymee suddenly interjected, "I think I have some pictures from when I was born in 1985 up until right before we left him. I don't recognize the city, but it's not the one I grew up in once we left."

Everyone thought about it for a minute. It was a long shot, but they may be able to at least get a last known location for her father. "Where are they?" Nikita asked Jaymee.

"At my dorm." Jaymee regretfully replied.

There was a collective groan. "Do we know if they still have everything?" Nikita asked.

Jaymee nodded. "They wouldn't even know I am missing. It's winter break, so they just think I am gone. I would assume so."

"The good news is I don't think Amanda would think of checking photos, so they should still be there." Alex added.

"Amanda may still have the place- or us- under observation." Ryan replied.

"Who wouldn't Amanda expect?" Alex replied.

Everyone's eyes turned slowly to Birkhoff. "What?" he immediately pouted, "Amanda knows what I look like."

"But she isn't expecting you." Ryan argued. "So in disguise she may miss it."

"Really?" Birkhoff whined like a child.

"Yes Birkhoff. It's a chance to go into the field, hopefully without much danger." Michael replied.

"It's perfect." Nikita agreed. "Alex, take Birkhoff and Jaymee and get them disguised. Then we'll get you guys to Green Bay as soon as possible."

It was still that afternoon when Birkhoff and Jaymee got off their commercial flight at Austin Straubel Airport. It had been Nikita's idea to keep them as hidden as possible. It was about 4:30 PM as they made their way to the luggage claim as Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Davis. Begrudgingly Birkhoff played the part, carefully intertwining his hand with hers.

Jaymee was surprised when Birkhoff did it. He had seemed friendly,, but she had never seen him act romantic before- he didn't seem like he knew how. The only exception was when Birkhoff had put her into his bed that morning a week ago. Hand-and-hand they walked to baggage to collect the prop bags they had taken with them. "Honey." Jaymee tried her best to fit into their cover, "There's one."

Birkhoff stepped forward and grabbed the first bag, handing it to Jaymee while he watched for the second bag. An old woman across from them smiled. With no sign of the second bag, Birkhoff went back to Jaymee, putting his arm around her waist- and much to her surprise and amusement, kissed her temple. The old woman smiled again, walking away with her bag. "Everyone seems to be buying it." Birkhoff whispered into her ear.

She nodded in confirmation. "There it is." She pointed to the second bag.

Birkhoff grabbed it, then the pair headed out to the parking lot. It was a cold January day and Jaymee instinctively pulled her coat collar around her ears. "Why couldn't you live somewhere warm. Like Florida?" Birkhoff asked her.

"Because Green Bay is home." She easily replied.

They got to the car that had been left for them, threw the luggage in back. Climbing into the car, Birkhoff immediately cranked the heat. Jaymee pulled the passenger mirror down and straightened her wig. She looked over at Birkhoff and surveyed his disguise. Birkhoff looked completely different with his beard shaved clean and his long hair tucked up under a winter hat. Gone were the gold chains and jewelry he normally wore. Birkhoff had been dressed in cleanly pressed khakis and a dress shirt with a crisp collar. It was completely opposite to what Birkhoff normally looked like. Jaymee had to admit to herself that he looked good.

For her, they had her in a pretty pale purple dress and a short blond wig- sort of a Doris Day like look. Her dark curly hair was carefully hidden under the wig and pinned down with hundreds of bobby pins. Since she was a fairly short girl, only about five feet tall, they put her on heels to make her taller (and hopefully unrecognizable) and they had also put Birkhoff on lifts to change his height for anything that may be scanning for him. It seemed trivial, but they wanted to take as many precautions as necessary to prevent Birkhoff and Jaymee to be identified before they got to her dorm. "You look really nice." Birkhoff complemented her, much to her surprise.

"Thanks." She replied. "So do you."

After the awkward exchange, they rode in silence towards the campus, clear across town from the airport. After about five minutes of silence, it was driving Jaymee crazy, so she asked, "So, do you not get out of the house much?"

She was rewarded with a brief smile. "No," Birkhoff replied, "I don't. I'm not the fighting type like Nikita and Michael. I'm not very good with guns. Besides, things tend not to go well when I am the one out on missions.

"Well that's all good to know now." Jaymee laughed. "I hope that we don't run into trouble. I've never touched a gun in my life. Not a big fan of them."

Somehow that didn't surprise Birkhoff too much. Since her dad hadn't been around it wasn't too surprising that she hadn't been around hunting or anything else that may introduce her to guns. "I didn't like them much either, but after Division they've sort of become a fact of life." He replied.

"Ooh!" Jaymee suddenly squealed, pointed out the windshield, "Pelicans!"

A small "v" of pelicans flew over the bridge they were crossing. Birkhoff looked at Jaymee with a raised eyebrow. "What?" he asked.

Jaymee was blushed a bright red. "I'm sorry. I'm not use to being around people like Division. I'm an animal lover- I like zoos. Especially like seeing wild birds- turkeys, herons, cranes, and pelicans. My mom use to laugh every time I saw pelicans, I shouted with glee. Ever since I was a child." Jaymee explained as she thought back to the great times with her mother.

"It's okay." Birkhoff felt bad for making her feel self-conscious. "It's nice to be with someone non-Division for a while, get away from the killings and stress and back to what real life is like."

"Maybe someday you'll have a chance at a real life." Jaymee threw out.

Birkhoff doubted it, but began to ponder what it would be like if Division was gone. What if he and Nikita, Michael, Alex, Sean and all the others were free? "I can see it now," he half-jokingly replied, "Michael and Nikita barbequing, all of us out on the deck. Alex and Sean with a couple of kids, maybe even Max there- and Cassandra," Jaymee was lost but kept listening, "Sonya barefoot and pregnant."

"Wow. You didn't strike me as the kids type." Jaymee commented, trying to hide the hurt that she wasn't in his imagined scenario. Then again, she wasn't exactly one of the group, so she couldn't really be upset. "Who's Max?"

"Sorry." Birkhoff apologized as it occurred to him that Jaymee wasn't one of the main group and had no idea about Max and Cassandra, "It's a long story, but Max is Michael's son and Cassandra is Max's mother."

Jaymee tried to picture Michael as a father. It was a little less surprising then thinking of Birkhoff in the same light- Michael seemed like the type that would be real fatherly to a young child. "Oh." She finally replied to Birkhoff, realizing how little she knew about Birkhoff and his group. "So how long have you and Sonya been dating?"

Birkhoff paused to think for a minute, then replied, "I guess about a year-and-a-half, off and on."

"How nice." Jaymee smiled in reply, not wanting to bud too much into Birkhoff's business, and secretly wishing for that kind of relationship for herself.

"What about you?" Birkhoff asked her, "Anyone special."

Biting her lower lip, Jaymee shook her head in embarrassment. "It's been a long time since there's been someone for me."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Birkhoff seemed genuinely apologetic.

"It's okay. I'm use to this at this point."

Birkhoff decided to change the subject for Jaymee. "So what's it like growing up in a town like Green Bay?" Birkhoff asked.

Jaymee shrugged. "Nothing special. Pretty quiet unless the Packers are playing."

"I would suppose so." Birkhoff replied. "So how come you went to school in Green Bay instead of Florida or California or something?"

"Never really thought about it." Jaymee replied honestly, "It was just what I always thought about."

It kind of made sense to Birkhoff. Home was where you grew up, there was always something special about it. It had been a long time since Birkhoff had thought about his home. At this point he'd been with Division so long, it had been a very long time since he thought about his true home- where he had been before Division. Clearing his head, he returned back to the present, with Jaymee seated beside him as they drove through her hometown.

When they arrived on campus there still weren't very many people since it was still winter break. That was fortunate for Birkhoff and Jaymee. They got to the door and Jaymee opened the lock with her ID card. She checked down the hallway to make sure there was no one around, then they slowly walked towards her room. When they got to the door, Jaymee paused. She hadn't been back to the room since she had been kidnapped. "You ready?" Birkhoff asked her.

She took a deep breath and nodded, using her ID card to open the door. Birkhoff walked into the room, Jaymee following slowly behind. "Where are the pictures?" he asked.

"Bedroom. Bedside bookshelf. They're all there." Jaymee replied robotically, frozen in memory.

Birkhoff headed off towards the door with Jaymee's name on it. Meanwhile Jaymee just sat in the doorway. Her mind quickly replayed the horrible scenes of the last time she had been in this room. Her eyes scanned the room, replaying the shot in her mind. She hadn't even realized she has started to cry until she felt the cold tears on her cheeks. She felt dizzy, dropping to her knees. "Jaymee?" she barely heard Birkhoff's voice. "Jaymee? Jaymee, it's okay."

She couldn't even respond. The fear from her last experience had her paralyzed. Her heart was pounding as she relived her roommate, a completely innocent from everything bystander, brutally murdered, her life taken away. "Hey, hey," Birkhoff tried to comfort her, pulling her gently into his arms, "Jaymee, sweetie, its okay."

Jaymee's tears began to soak Birkhoff's shirt as the young girl shook in his arms violently. He could not imagine what the young girl had been through. Carefully she guided her to the couch, sitting down and pulling Jaymee back into his arms. "What's going on?" Birkhoff heard Michael's voice over his earpiece.

"We may have underestimated the power of bringing her back to the room where her roommate was killed and she was kidnapped." Birkhoff replied.

"You're clear, but we don't know for how long." Michael told him. "Can you get her out of there?"

"Yeah. I think so." Birkhoff replied.

"Do it as soon as you can." Michael encouraged him.

"And I thought working with kids was difficult. Nothing like an emotionally distraught woman." Birkhoff quietly commented to himself, Jaymee not hearing a word.

Spotting a backpack on the other end of the couch, he carefully filled it with all of the photo albums he had found in her bedroom. Throwing it over his shoulder, he carefully helped Jaymee up. "C'mon Jaymee." He treated her gingerly.

Holding her head into his chest, he walked down towards their car. Luckily it seemed like so far that no one had caught wind of the operation, so he did not have to rush to get Jaymee to the car. She seemed to be recovering slightly once they had left the room, but she was still in a daze. He helped her into the car, then threw her albums in the back. As he climbed into the driver's seat, he heard Michael's voice panicked, "Guys, you need to get out of there!"

"What's going on?" Birkhoff shut the car door, pulling his seat belt tight.

"When you opened her apartment door, it sent out a signal. We just spotted Amanda agents entering the campus." Michael replied.

"Crap. I'll get us out of here." Birkhoff peeled out as quickly as possible.

As he got to the turn from the apartment area onto the main road leading out of campus, another black SUV turned right in front of them. "Shit! Hold on Jaymee!" Birkhoff peeled around the corner as the SUV made a speedy U-turn behind them to catch up. "They're on us!" Birkhoff hurriedly shouted at Michael.

"How's Jaymee?" Nikita asked.

Birkhoff glanced over at her, still completely frozen in shock. "Still in shock." He replied.

"Just get out of there and pray they don't start shooting." Michael instructed him.

"I'm doing my best man!" Birkhoff protested, knowing they were in for a long ride.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

They had been driving south for hours and the chase showed no signs of stopping. Both of them were getting low on fuel, so pretty soon it would come to a head- a game of chicken who stopped for gas first. Birkhoff drove as Jaymee watched out the back window at their pursuers. "How far are they?" Birkhoff asked.

"Six car lengths." Jaymee replied.

It was a low speed chase- neither car wanted to end their day pulled over by the police and have to report that back to their head people. Jaymee was watching as Birkhoff drove along. She watched as the SUV suddenly swerved right, then left, before it violently flipped into the median. "What the hell was that?" Birkhoff asked her, having seen part of it in the mirror.

"They wrecked!" Jaymee was surprised, trying to keep her enthusiasm down in case someone had been hurt.

"We can get a long way before they get that fixed." Birkhoff cheerfully replied.

"We could be at the airport in Chicago by then." Jaymee said.

"That's where they expect us to go through." Birkhoff scratched his head. "Is there anywhere we can stop?"

"There are suburbs between here and there." Jaymee replied. "Gurnee is where Six Flags is, there's also Highland Park…"

"Six Flags is too high profile." Birkhoff replied, "Too many cameras."  
"Highland Park maybe a good choice then." Jaymee replied.

They drove about forty minutes after a brief stop where they rented a car to try to hide themselves as much as possible. They stopped in the Northbrook/Highland Park area. Jaymee guided Birkhoff to a small Sheraton Hotel way off the main highway in Northbrook. "This is perfect." Birkhoff commented as he pulled into the parking lot. "I think we wait out the night, and then tomorrow we'll figure out how to get back."  
Jaymee frowned. "What about Nikita and them? Won't they be worried?"

Climbing out of the SUV, Birkhoff grabbed the fake luggage out of the back, and then shook his head. "They know we were being pursued. They know we will lay low so that Amanda can't pick up our signal when we are communicating with Division."

It made sense, so Jaymee went along with what Birkhoff suggested. They walked slowly into the hotel, still in disguise. Since the people in the SUV had never gotten a good look at it, they could still use them. Birkhoff went to the counter and got the pair a room while Jaymee sat in the lobby waiting for him. Once they had everything set, Birkhoff lead her towards the elevator. As the doors shut, Birkhoff told her, "We are registered under different names than before, just to be safe. I didn't want to take any chances of them finding us."

"Who am I?" Jaymee jokingly asked him.

"Mrs. Fett." Birkhoff casually replied.

Jaymee rolled her eyes. She should have figured he would have done something like that- everyone described Birkhoff as a nerd, so a Star Wars reference seemed in line. "Star Wars? Really?" she groaned to him.

Birkhoff just shrugged. When the elevator beeped for the third floor, Birkhoff led her out. "312." He told her.

Jaymee spotted the door and signaled Birkhoff to it. He used the key card to open the door. "One bed?" Jaymee immediately turned to Birkhoff as he put their luggage down, shutting the door behind them.

"Sorry, we're a married couple." He replied, "I'll take the chair."

Jaymee glanced at a pair of chairs by the window. They did not look very comfortable. "Take the bed. I'll sleep on the floor."

"What?" Birkhoff had a clearly bemused look on his face. "There is no way I'm letting you sleep on the floor of a hotel."

"It's okay. I'm a college student. I'm used to it."

"No way!" Birkhoff protested, "If anyone takes the floor, it's me!"

"Compromise?" Jaymee suggested, "If I promise to be good, we could share the bed."

Birkhoff chuckled. "I don't get that feeling it would be you that would have to be good."

"You're the one with the girlfriend." Jaymee replied.

"She trusts me." Birkhoff quickly replied.

"Good." Jaymee smiled, "Don't want to cause any problems." Jaymee sat on the chair by the window. "So, what do we do for the rest of the day?"

"We had better stay here. IF we move around, go out, it is more likely that we get caught on a camera." Birkhoff replied.

"I suppose that's true." Jaymee replied.

Leaning back, Jaymee closed her eyes. There had been so much going on, Jaymee's head was spinning. She just wanted a moment of peace. "Are you okay?" Birkhoff asked, his voice signaling to her that he had moved closer to her.

"I'm fine." She replied without opening her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Birkhoff's voice grew more serious.

"Still just a lot of stuff to take in." Jaymee replied.

Birkhoff gently squeezed her shoulder and as Jaymee opened her eyes, he sat in the chair across from her. "You feeling up to looking through the photos?"

Nodding, Birkhoff then reached over to the backpack and handed her one of the albums. "Sorry I froze up back there." She apologized.

He glanced up at her. "No problem."

Flipping through the pages, Jaymee had a book of pictures from when she was about seven. There were pictures of her and her mother- at the Shedd, at the Brookfield Zoo, the Milwaukee Zoo, a Packers' game, all the things they had done together. Her fingers traced her mother's image in a picture of them at a Milwaukee Brewers' game. She was so dazed at the memory that she didn't realize Birkhoff had gotten up to look at the picture. "Is that your mother?" he asked.

"Yeah." She softly replied.

"I see where you got your looks from. She's beautiful."

Jaymee blushed. "Thank you."

"How old were you there?"

"Ah," Jaymee thought for a minute, "Probably 7."

Birkhoff was silent for a minute, but then asked, "Can I ask what happened to your mother?" Birkhoff asked.

"Um," Jaymee swallowed hard. "We were in a car accident. A drunk driver. The car was t-boned into a tree. The EMT workers couldn't get us out and my mother was bleeding to death. I watched my mother die." The tears began to fall down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry." He gently rubbed her back. "I was ten."

Jaymee looked up at Birkhoff to confirm what he was telling her was what she thought it was. His eyes instantly told her it was. "What happened?"

"A robbery." Birkhoff simply replied. "My mom, dad and big brother Silas, little sister Hannah. We had come back from Florida a day early because Hannah was sick. I think the robbers expected us to be gone that day. My mom and Hannah were in the living room- they shot them. I was in Silas' room with him. They were getting closer. We heard when they shot my father in the kitchen." Birkhoff stopped briefly to brush hair out of his eyes and Jaymee noticed his eyes had begun to slightly tear, "Silas shoved me out the window to get help and slammed the window behind me. By the time the police had arrived, they had killed everyone- but me."

"Did the police catch them?" Jaymee asked.

"Yes." Birkhoff replied. "But it didn't help me any. They got tiny sentences. They didn't have a lot of evidence, so they pled out. That's when I turned against authority and became Shadow Walker, the non-conformist hacker."

"I'm sorry to hear you had to go through that." Jaymee told him. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Birkhoff dried his eyes on his sleeve. "Thanks. Listen- please don't mention it to anyone back at Division- I have never told them."

Jaymee was surprised. "You've never told your friends?"

Shaking his head, he replied, "No. I've never been able to tell anyone before."

Waiting to question why he told her, Jaymee decided to let it be. She went back to flipping through photos, as did Birkhoff. Once she had flipped through her album, she grabbed another, then another. All the albums were the same, so they only way to find the pictures were to flip through them all. She had never organized the pictures- just put them in as she got them- so her baby pictures her mother had given her were just in the middle of an album somewhere. "Hey!" Birkhoff's surprised voice caught Jaymee off-guard, "I think I have something."

He handed Jaymee the photo album he had been looking through. Laying it in her lap over the one she had been looking through and looked at the pictures that Birkhoff had pointed out. She was a newborn in the first few pictures. "Yeah, I think so." She closed her album and put it on the floor next to her.

Moving his chair beside hers, Birkhoff pointed to a picture of a young baby. "Is that you?" he asked.

Blushing, Jaymee nodded. Birkhoff had picked to point to a picture of her at a month old getting a bath. Flipping to the next page, Jaymee found a specific picture she was looking for- a picture of her mom holding her on a beach. "Do you have any pictures of your dad?" Birkhoff asked as she studied the picture.

"No." Jaymee quietly replied. "I think my mom destroyed all of them." She went to pull out the picture to look closer and the album fell to the floor. When she picked it up, Jaymee noticed a pocket that had popped open in the back cover. Taking a closer look, she realized it had been glued shut until it got hit. Reaching inside the pocket, Jaymee's hand hit the corners of a few papers. When she pulled them out, she realized there were a few envelopes. "What the heck?" she questioned allowed, flipping them over and examining them in her hand.

Birkhoff's eyebrows were arched in surprise as Jaymee opened the first envelope. She carefully unfolded a letter from the envelope, instantly recognizing her mom's perfume. It was nice to see her mother's handwriting. Clearing her throat, Jaymee read, "Jaymee, I hope you don't have to find out this way, but if something happens to me I want you to know the truth." Jaymee hesitated. "Your father was involved in a very shady government organization called Empire. I loved him, but you and I were in danger and I had to leave Florida before they found out about us. I know that Florida was always our home, but we had to be safe. Your father went by Wexland Cooper, but his real name is Kevin Peters, should you want to try to find him. I hope by the time you are reading this that he is out of the organization and safe for you. Please forgive him- he got caught up in a bad thing through no fault of his own. Please forgive me for not telling you- it was only for your protection. I love you. Mom."

Silent for a minute to let the information process, Birkhoff finally said, "I'm glad we went for the photos." Birkhoff smiled at her. "You got a little closure."

"And more." Jaymee had opened another envelope and was holding photos in her hands.

"What is it?" Birkhoff glanced over her arm at the photos.

Jaymee slowly flipped through the photos, stunned. In her hands was a photo of Jaymee's mom and dad- each holding a baby. "I'm a twin?" she questioned aloud.

Birkhoff gave her a shocked look as Jaymee flipped over the picture. "Charity Grace Peters (Cooper). May 21, 1986- May 23, 1986." Jaymee instantly knew why her mother had never told her- it must have been too painful to talk about. "Wow." was all that Birkhoff could manage, in shock over all the information they had found out in the last minute.

"We can find out where Charity's grave is." Jaymee finally commented after a few moments of quiet thought. "It will tell us where they were. More specifically Florida."

"Yeah." Birkhoff replied, surprised at Jaymee's reaction, realizing she was probably in shock, "We can do that back at Division."

"When we get there." Jaymee replied, knowing the evil woman who had kidnapped her was still out there, and having a strong feeling that she had a lot to do with all the questions of Jaymee's life.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Jaymee awoke with a yawn, stretching in the bed. When her hand hit something soft she rolled over in a sudden panic, finding Birkhoff asleep in the bed beside her. His hair was a hornet's nest and she giggled at the sight of the sleeping tech as she climbed out of the bed. The night before they had sat on the bed together to watch TV. To keep warm they got under the blankets and then they must have fallen asleep. She hoped it wouldn't cause any problems with his girlfriend, but then again she could just pretend it didn't happen. Grabbing the pillow and a blanket from the bed, she threw it on the couch to make it look like she slept there.

As she came out of the bathroom after taking a shower, Birkhoff was the sitting up on the bed. He gave her a smile and asked, "Please tell me you didn't take the couch."

Slightly embarrassed about her attire, a towel, Jaymee pulled it tighter around herself then shrugged. "I did not want to wake you." She replied.

"That wasn't very gentlemanly of me." Birkhoff smirked in reply as he stood up off the bed. "Did you sleep okay"  
Nodding, Jaymee replied, "Yeah. I was just fine."

"I'll be in the bathroom." He excused himself so Jaymee could change.

Once the bathroom door shut, Jaymee dropped her towel, only to hear- "Forgot- ohmygoshiamsosorry." Birkhoff's voice hit an octave Jaymee had never heard before, followed by a slam of the bathroom door.

Amused, Jaymee pulled on her underwear. She wasn't terrible shy, so it didn't bother her too much- it was definitely an accident. It wasn't like she had woke up to Birkhoff draped over her- he had a girlfriend after all. She slowly redressed wondering if he had at least like what he'd seen. She was very self-conscious about her body as every woman was.

When Birkhoff slammed the bathroom door shut, he caught a glance of himself in the mirror- his face flushed a bright red. He had thought there had not been enough time yet for her to change, so it had been a real surprise when he walked into the room to find her completely naked. His mind panicked and he bolted back into the bathroom. There was no interest there besides friendship- he had Sonya after all but she was a beautiful woman. He climbed into the shower trying to forget the image and think about Sonya.

The phone Birkhoff had for contacting Division began to ring, startling Jaymee. She put the comb down and walked over to the phone, picking it up. "Hello?" she answered.

"Jaymee?" she recognized Michael's voice.

"Yes. Birkhoff is in the shower?"

"Ah." Michael replied, "Is there any way I can talk with him?"

Walking over to the bathroom door, she gently knocked. "Birkhoff!" she called, "Michael's on the phone. He would like to talk to you."

The door opened a sliver and Jaymee slipped the phone through, looking out the window incase Birkhoff was indecent. She felt his hand grab the phone and the bathroom door re-shut. Jaymee walked back over to the bed and sat down to continue combing her hair. It was about forty-five minutes later after the phone conversation and a shower when Birkhoff emerged from the bathroom. "What's the plan?" she asked him.

Drying his hair with a towel, Birkhoff replied, "Michael pointed out that Amanda's people may be looking for us at the airports in Chicago and Milwaukee We could try to drive to another airport or just drive back to Division."

Jaymee scratched her head. "How long is that drive?"

Birkhoff laughed. "Long." He replied, "12 hours."

Jaymee thought for a few seconds. "But it is a lot safer to not use an airport, right?"

Birkhoff nodded. "We can certainly be more stealthy without airports. They may be looking there for us."

"Then I say we drive." Jaymee confirmed.

Sitting down on the bed, Birkhoff pulled on socks. "Alright then we had better get going."

With lunch and bathroom stops, it was about thirteen-and-a-half hours later when they walked back into Division. Sonya came up and greeted Birkhoff with a hug and kiss as they walked towards Operations. "Jaymee, Birkhoff that trip took you long enough." Michael teased them as h caught sight of them walking in.

"Sorry. That trip turned out to be a mess." Birkhoff replied.

"We got good information." Jaymee replied handing the documents over to Michael. "I have a little sister named Charity who died as an infant. If we find her grave in Florida, we may find my father."

"What was her name?" Sonya asked.

"Charity Peters." Jaymee replied, "Born May 21, 1986 died May 23, 1986. Probably buried in Florida."

Sonya sat down at her station and began to search. After everything she had been through with Amanda's games, she felt bad for Jaymee. She wanted to do everything she could to help her overcome Amanda's crap. There hadn't been a lot of time for them to talk, but Sonya kind of knew what Jaymee was going through. About five seconds later Sonya smiled as the results popped up on the screen. "Bingo." She replied to the group. "there is a Charity Peters buried in Clearwater. There is also a Peter Kevin living about a mile away. I'm pulling up the driver's license now."

Jaymee froze in shock as the driver's license pulled up. It was definitely her father. "Do you know about your father?" Sonya turned to Jaymee.

Taking a deep breath, Jaymee nodded in confirmation. "Tell me."

"It looks like there is a Mrs. Kevin, Melissa Kevin. They have two kids, Logan, who is five and Sarah, who is two."

Jaymee felt like she had been punched. Her father had left, well, he had let her mother leave, without a second thought, yet now he was just moving on, without a thought about her, with another family. She knew it was complicated,, but it still hurt. Jaymee did not say anything. "Jaymee, are you okay?" Michael asked.

Slowly she nodded. "Just a shock."

"Well, we had better get down there. We don't want anything to happen to the family or him." Michael said.

"Can I stay here this time" Birkhoff jokingly asked.

"You and Jaymee and Sonya can work from here. Nikita, Sean, Alex and I will go." Michael replied.

"We had better hope Amanda hasn't added all this up yet." Birkhoff added.

"Birkhoff, Sonya, can you monitor that Keep an eye out. Warn us if anything suspicious pops up." Michael requested.

"Yes chief." Birkhoff joked in reply.

"I'm working on getting a flight to Clearwater." Sonya announced.

"What are we doing when we get there" Nikita finally spoke up.

"We'll go to the house and see from there if she is home and if Amanda was there, all those kind of things." Michael explained.

"Hopefully this is a lot more successful than Jaymee's rescue." Birkhoff laughed.

That evening the group had left for Clearwater and Jaymee was getting ready for bed. She rubbed her temples, a headache beginning to form. Her vision began to blur. She tried to lay down and go to sleep, but she could not fall asleep. She found herself wandering around the facility. When she finally got to the front door, she decided to get some fresh air. When she opened the door, she was shocked to find Amanda waiting. "Perfect Jaymee." Amanda smiled.

Jaymee watched in horror as Amanda and a group of her people armed with big guns headed into Division. She was under autopilot, not sure what was compelling her to do the things she was doing. She had no idea what had led her to the front door, but now Division, without their big guns was going to be in big trouble. "Move!" Amanda demanded Jaymee into Division at gun point.

Walking down the halls, Jaymee tried to think of a way to warn everyone- or anyone- but she had not been in Division long enough to know any way to do it plus she was under gunpoint.

Jaymee recognized that Amanda was heading towards Operations and Jaymee hoped Birkhoff and Sonya had already headed to bed. As they got closer to Operations, Jaymee cringed as she could hear Birkhoff and Sonya bantering back-and-forth. In slow motion horror Jaymee watched as Amanda signaled her one of her men by hand and they walked into Operations, a spray of bullets ahead of them.


End file.
